MGMAT CAT 3- Confusion - on the use of "Fewer"

I found this to be tough and interesting one.

IMO E. OA please.

1) Idiom: contribute X to Y
btw X and Y
2) Parallel: over complex, increasing mobility and poor planning

3) Few (count) vs less(non- count) usage

Btw A and E
Isnt E passive

A recent study has cited overcomplexity, increasing worker mobility between companies, and poor financial planning in estimating that fewer than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans.

A recent study has cited overcomplexity, increasing worker mobility between companies, and poor financial planning in estimating that fewer than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans.

Overcomplexity, increasing worker mobility between companies, and poor financial planning have been cited by a recent study that estimated that over half of eligible American workers do not contribute the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans. - Passive voice

Citing overcomplexity, increasing mobility of workers between companies, and poor financial planning, less than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans, a recent study estimates. - Awkward construction

A recent study of American workers, citing overcomplexity, increasing mobility of workers between companies, and poor financial planning, has estimated that fewer than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans. Misplaced modifier

Citing overcomplexity, increasing mobility of workers between companies, and poor financial planning, a recent study has estimated that fewer than half of eligible American workers contribute the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans.

Confused between A and E.
In A I find to be more precise but doubt on A recent study .. in estimating.
In E I find the opening modifier correctly modified the ' a recent study'.
Found E to be more appropriate.

Would love to hear why not A.

Very true Pranay... E is not passive, A recent study is citing X, Y, Z

OA is E.

Here is the official explanation from MGMAT.

The original sentence incorrectly utilizes the past perfect tense in its use of "had contributed." The past perfect tense demands that the simple past tense also be used in the sentence to refer to another action that occurred in the past but after the action referred to by the past perfect tense. Here, the sentence uses the present perfect tense "has cited" and the present participle "estimating," but does not use the simple past tense to refer to another action in the later past.

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice is awkward in its use of the structure "Overcomplexity, increasing mobility . . . , and poor financial planning . . .have been cited" as this structure leads to the use of the passive voice, which is less preferable than the active voice. It is also problematic in its use of both the past tense "estimated" and the present perfect tense "have been cited" to refer to the recent study; the verb tenses should be consistent in their treatment of the study.

(C) This choice incorrectly places the modifying phrase "Citing overcomplexity, increasing mobility . . . and poor financial planning" adjacent to "less than half of American workers," incorrectly suggesting that it is less than half of American workers, and not a recent study, that cites these factors as causes for a lack of contribution to retirement plans. This choice also repeats the original verb tense error with "had contributed."

(D) This choice repeats the original verb tense error with "had contributed."

(E) CORRECT. This choice correctly uses both the present participle ("Citing . . .") and the present perfect ("has estimated") to refer to the recent study, as well as the present tense "contribute" in reference to the study findings. The phrase "Citing overcomplexity, increasing mobility . . . , and poor financial planning," is correctly used here as a modifier for "a recent study."

Hi Ankur,

Could you also post the cpomplexuty of the question? I believe this one has to be 700+ question.

Also, can someone justify more precisely why Option A is wrong.

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:Hi Ankur,

Could you also post the cpomplexuty of the question? I believe this one has to be 700+ question.

Also, can someone justify more precisely why Option A is wrong.

No buddy its a 600-700 level Question.

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:Hi Ankur,

Could you also post the cpomplexuty of the question? I believe this one has to be 700+ question.

Also, can someone justify more precisely why Option A is wrong.

@ Bublii

please notice Option A

A recent study has cited overcomplexity, increasing worker mobility between companies, and poor financial planning in estimating that fewer than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans.

HAD CONTRIBUTED is past perfect tense...this tense is used when 2 actions in past happened...and the action which happened in More past (prior to 2nd action)use past perfect..
in this option first A recent study has cited, this is present perfect tense..an action started in the past and continues to present...so logically on the basis of the study some conclusion has been made and stated and its better to state that in present tense...past perfect can not be used because there is no other second action involved.

@ Ankur

You asked the use of FEWER,As HSPA mentioned

Few (count) vs less(non- count)----> correct

but in this question it is used in this way---> fewer than half of....

In these cases, I think i read in some post that

fewer than half of...means Something countable..hence..PLURAL VERB

Less than half of....means Something non-countable..hence..SINGULAR VERB

I hope u understand what i want to say, thats why in option in PLURAL VERB (CONTRIBUTE) is used.

If anyone find this wrong please comment.

Thanks Atul for clarification

While choosing option E as answer I somewhere had this in the back of my mind but was unable to justify it.

I was under impression that since recent survey has cited the results taking some data from events that had occured earlier. So I was thinking that citation of survey results happened at some point of time and the events, which fed data to survey, happened earlier point of time. This confused me.

Anyways, thanks for the inputs.

atulmangal wrote:

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:Hi Ankur,

Could you also post the cpomplexuty of the question? I believe this one has to be 700+ question.

Also, can someone justify more precisely why Option A is wrong.

@ Bublii

please notice Option A

A recent study has cited overcomplexity, increasing worker mobility between companies, and poor financial planning in estimating that fewer than half of eligible American workers had contributed the maximum amount to their employer-offered retirement plans.

HAD CONTRIBUTED is past perfect tense...this tense is used when 2 actions in past happened...and the action which happened in More past (prior to 2nd action)use past perfect..
in this option first A recent study has cited, this is present perfect tense..an action started in the past and continues to present...so logically on the basis of the study some conclusion has been made and stated and its better to state that in present tense...past perfect can not be used because there is no other second action involved.